The new cultivar is a product of chance discovery by the inventor, Michel Barrault, a citizen of France. The new variety was discovered as an individual seedling during 2010 t a commercial nursery in Maine de Loire, France. The parent varieties are unknown, however the inventor's best information leads him to believe the seed parent is the commercial, unpatented variety Salvia gregii ‘Lycoides’. The pollen parent is unknown.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar ‘BARSAL’ by vegetative cuttings was first performed at the same commercial greenhouse in La Possoniere, France in 2010 and has shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type on successive generations.